Haku and the red pills
by Run Peng
Summary: Why could Haku recognize Chihiro so easily when they first meet with each other? What is the story behind them? and where does the red pill Haku gave her come from? The story may give you a proper answer.


Kohaku river used to be a small, tiny, little river, flowing around an unknown suburban area.

People in the past always had a strong connection with nature. They lived along the river, irrigated their farms with it, fished and transported above for a living. Day by day, people built the shrine near the river, named it with the river's name "Kohaku". That was the custom at the time, all the people did like that, showing their thankfulness towards gods behind those objects. It was rumored that gods can only exist with people continuously caring about them. In other words, gods' existence highly depends on those followers. God knows why ordinary being can accidentally come up with the true secret of gods' property! Anyway, that is the birth of Kohaku, a white-dragon, the god of Kohaku river.

As a man-made creature, Kohaku spared no efforts to maintain the relationship with human beings. Winter left and spring came. He drove the water, cleaned the muds below, sometimes changed his looking as a teenager-like human, and helped the old to till the land. Gossips about a young man in white who did favors were quickly spread out. Then people all got to believe in the coming of god, placed more emphasis on every sacrifice rite, to hope for the better life.

Things kept unchanged, unchanged for centuries, until the wave of industrialization came. The young left the old alone for bigger cities, "city dream" has flushed every human being with lust and desire up to the crest. Farms were left uncultivated, the pace of development in this area could no longer catch up with that of people getting old. Few people remembered the regular sacrifice rite, still, even the bygone reliance and relationship with Kohaku river.

Shrine got old and unfixed, fluttering in the wind. Kohaku had to stay at the bottom of the river in order to save his power, and maybe silently waited for the moment that all the people forgot his existence.

One day, a girl with her parents came to the band. She flew the kite up to the sky, rolling the wheel on her hand while stepping back and back. Then, with the sound that something falls into the water, the girl drowned. The slight ripple awaked Kohaku at the bottom. "Maybe it's time for me to say goodbye." He said to himself, then used up most of his power, quickly swam to the girl's side and lifted her up. On the back of Kohaku, the girl recovered consciousness.

"Are you OK?" Kohaku broke the ice.

"Wow, who are you? Why can I breathe in the water!" Scream came out from her mouth.

"My name is Kohaku. Do you remember that you fell into the river?"

"Chihiro Ogino. That's my name. So you saved my life! How can express my thanks to you!"

"Anyway. Don't tell others that I saved you. I just want to have a deep sleep later. A really deep sleep without any disturbance." Kohaku's voice became feeble.

Chihiro searched up and down on her pockets for a while, and finally took out a bottle.

"These are konpeitōs." She poked her finger at the inside. "My mother gives me one of them every time I behave well. So I've saved them for a long time, and now, they are all yours! Let me count, one, two, three….. wow, many many konpeitōs. Hope you can enjoy them before you sleep! "

Before handing the bottle out, she suddenly came up with something important.

"Remember to brush your teeth before going to sleep! My mother always spanks me if I eat konpeitōs and don't brush my teeth before going to bed. Did you hear me?"

Kohaku couldn't help giggling. He extended his hand, what waited for him was her little finger. "Pinky swear on it! If not obeyed, your finger will be cut and you have to swallow thousand of needles!" Little Chihiro insisted.

Kohaku finally got the present. At the moment that he received the represent, he felt somewhat his power came back. "Chihiro Ogino. Such a strange name." He whispered to himself.

Years later, surprisingly he was still alive in the world. He did not know why it could happen, while he always bring the bottle of konpeitōs along with him. Konpeitōs might have done something, he thought. However, when a real estate came and would like to build a mansion on where there was the riverbed, Kohaku has no power to keep off the flood of concrete. "Stop doing that!" The scream of Kohaku was overwhelmed by the roaring of pile drivers. With mud and blood on his surface, he awkwardly flew into a bell tower. The bottle shattered in his mouth, mixing his blood with those poor konpeitōs. The tunnel inside the bell tower was so long, so long. Stumbling and knocked on the wall on four directions, blood-covered konpeitōs inside his mouth were polished off their edges and corners, and finally became red pills.

Then he reached the end of the tunnel. And the world changed.


End file.
